Welcome to the Fallout
by Bookworm12345
Summary: An old friend of Damon's is in town after he discovers that Katherine wasn't in the tomb. Leesha is used to helping Damon sober up. But will she be able to get along with his brother and the girl that both Salvatores are interested in long enough to help?
1. Of Old Friends

Disclaimer: I own nothing here except for Leesha. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.

So my friend A. got me addicted to The Vampire Diaries. And although part of me hates her for it, the rest of me is extremely thankful because I never would have watched it if she hadn't gotten me curious. Thanks A. Anyway, the bunny for this one came out of a discussion A. and I had one day about how Damon needed a friend that he could talk girls with. Random, but that's us. When I rewatched Fool Me Once and A Few Good Men and wanted someone to snuggle Damon a few days later, Alicia "Leesha" Macdonald was born.

Shout out to the wonderful PurpleStrawberryDreams for putting up with my insanity over this story and letting me bounce ideas off of her.

* * *

Damon knocked back a shot of whiskey, then another. It took a lot to get to get a vampire drunk, but he was well on his way. Katherine hadn't been in the tomb. She had known that he had been waiting for her for the last 150 years, and she hadn't cared. Nothing, not even someone sitting on the stool next to him, could distract him from his mission to get royally wasted. At least not until they said something.

"You look like shit, Salvatore," a familiar voice said.

He glanced up blearily. "Leesha?" he slurred. "Alicia Macdonald?"

"Hey Damon." She studied him, frowning gently. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked, dark eyes worried.

He laughed bitterly and threw back yet another shot. What was this, twenty-six, twenty-nine? He'd lost count. "Katherine happened," he said. "Lying bitch."

"That doesn't sound good," she said before standing up. "Come on, I'll take you home."

Damon whined, but allowed her to help him out of the Grille and into her red Mazda. She had never let anything hurt him in the ten years that she'd known him, not even himself.

* * *

"There's clean clothes on the bed Damon, now get showered and I'll make you coffee," Leesha said over her shoulder as she moved down the steps. She ran a hand through her wavy black hair and tried to find the kitchen. Damon was more drunk than she had ever seen him, even that time when he had shown up at her apartment in Atlanta two years ago. But the process was still the same: get him into the shower, as hot as it went, and leave him there; make sure clean clothes are on the bed (black, they had to be black); and make him coffee strong enough to be mistaken for motor oil. Simple.

At least until someone distracted her.

"What are you doing?" an unfamiliar voice asked. Leesha jumped, spinning around to see a young man looking at her curiously. Tall, dark eyes, light brown hair...normal looking, if you discounted the fact that he was a vampire. This must be the younger brother that didn't feed on humans. God knew how much Damon made fun of him for that.

"I hate it when they do that," she muttered. "You must be Stefan."

"How do you know my name?" he asked, tensing. Leesha smiled and turned back to the counter.

"You need to relax," she said, putting some more coffee into the filter. "Do you want some coffee?"

"No, I'm good. Thank you." Stefan sat down at the table. "Who are you?"

"I'm Leesha," she said. "Excuse me for a second. I need to make sure your brother is actually doing what I told him to."

She sailed out of the kitchen and up the steps. "You'd better be in that shower Damon," she called.

"Vai a farti fottere," he called back.

"Oh, not on your _life_, honey," she said cheerfully as she opened the bathroom door.

"Annoying human," he muttered.

"The annoying human is the one making you coffee, idiot vampire," she corrected.

"Don't remind me," he groaned with a sound like he'd thumped his head against the shower wall.

"Five minutes," Leesha warned. "And your brother's here."

"Fuck," he moaned. "That's perfect. Saint Stefan means that Elena will be making an appearance soon enough."

"I'll worry about that, you get cleaned up and dressed," she snapped before her voice softened slightly. "Is the hangover making its appearance yet?"

"Starting to," he mumbled.

"Then finish up," she said. "I'll be downstairs."

* * *

Leesha barely noticed the the girl in the kitchen as she made a beeline to the coffee machine, poured herself a cup, and liberally added milk. She felt the tension begin to ease out of her body with her first sip of _caffeine_. "God, I needed that," she groaned, eyes closed.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked behind her.

"I always forget how much I hate long car trips without coffee," she said without turning around, taking another sip. "I'm Leesha."

"Elena."

Leesha smiled. "Nice to meet you, Elena," she said, pouring a cup for Damon. Three, two, and...she smiled as she heard the footsteps coming down the stairs. Yep, she still had it.

"God, I love you," Damon said as he took the cup she held out to him and took a greedy sip.

"È solo a me l'amore per il mio caffè," she laughed, turning around to lean against the counter, and blinked at the girl she had been talking to. "Is that-" _(You only love me for my coffee.)_

"Spitting image of the bitch, but no," Damon interrupted. Leesha nodded and settled back against the counter. She had trusted Damon not to lie to her since she'd met him; she saw no reason to change that now. "And I do not." Leesha hmmed disbelievingly but let it go.

"What are you doing in Mystic Falls?" Elena asked curiously.

"I stupidly chose to drive instead of fly to New York, and guess who I saw nearly passed out at the bar when I stopped for dinner?" Leesha said, scowling at Damon. "What the hell possessed you to do that? Nearly ten years, and I've never seen you that bad."

"I don't want to talk about it," Damon muttered into his coffee.

Leesha studied him and sighed. This once, she'd drop it. But just this once. "Alright," she said before changing the subject and asking, "Where'd Stefan get to?"

"He had to go hunting," Elena said, making Damon snort at some private joke.

"Damon, shut up and drink your coffee," Leesha said.

"Bossy human," he muttered.

"Stupid vampire," she shot back.

"Annoying girl."

"Stubborn idiot." Leesha gave him a sunny smile, practically daring him to try contradicting her.

"...damn."

"Gotcha," she smirked, ignoring his pout when she leaned forward to ruffle his hair.

"I hate you," he mumbled into his coffee.

"I thought you loved me?"

"Changed my mind," he pouted before grinning as she refilled his cup. "You are the best." Leesha smiled fondly and shook her head. She had forgotten just how easily his moods could change when he was like this.

"Hello, Stefan," Damon said suddenly, smirking as his brother appeared in the doorway.

"Damon," he said before smiling and moving towards Elena, making Leesha raise an eyebrow as the vampire kissed her on the cheek. She looked at Damon questioningly, head motioning slightly to the pair at the end of table. He shrugged and held out his mug for another refill.

"You won't be able to sleep if you keep downing coffee like there's no tomorrow," Leesha said as she took the mug. "And don't give me that 'I'm a vampire, I don't need to sleep because I'm a _vampire_' Twilight crap. What I wouldn't give to have that woman in front of me..."

"I'd help," he muttered, greedily drinking the coffee.

"I know you would," she said. "Enjoy that cup; it's your last one."

"But Leesha..." he whined.

"No," she said firmly. "That's your third cup of sober-up. More than that gets you wired, remember? I do not want to be chasing a hyper vampire all over this house because you have too much caffeine in you to go to sleep. It's counter-productive, makes me want to stake you, you don't get coffee in the morning...See where I'm going with this?"

"You're so mean," he grumbled, but began to nurse his coffee instead of gulping it down like the first two.

"And you're still drunk," she said, turning around to get another cup for herself. "Your point?" He scowled at her back and mumbled something too low for her to hear clearly. Leesha smirked but didn't turn around. "Insult me all you want Damon, it doesn't change the fact that we both know how you react to my coffee or that I will cut you off if you ignore it." She turned back around and smiled sweetly at him. Almost as an afterthought, she added, "Ass."

He smiled back, an exasperated and almost fond expression on his face. "Bossy brat."

"And don't you forget it," she told him mock-seriously before grinning. "You sober enough for a hug?" He considered the idea for a moment, stifling laughter at the poleaxed expressions on Stefan and Elena's faces. He pointedly glanced in their direction and Leesha nodded in realization. "Right." She pulled out a chair and sat across from him. "So what've you been up to?"

"Oh, you know, the usual," he drawled. "Annoying Stefan, killing people..."

"Damon!"

"What?" he asked. "I was bored!"

"And you couldn't come to Atlanta?" Leesha asked. "It's been over a year."

"We were near Atlanta in December," Elena said quietly, flinching back at Damon's glare.

"You had what's-his-name to focus on," Damon said hastily in response to Leesha's hurt expression. "I didn't want to intrude."

She laughed slightly. "Liar, you love to intrude. And Michael hasn't been around since August." She frowned, hands tightening around the mug.

"Do I need to kill him?" he asked.

"No," she said quickly. "I'm just getting sick of mia fortuna in relationships. First Izzy, then the vampire bitch who wanted to drain me dry, then Sam, and Paul, and Gwen, and now Michael..." She shook her head. "I sure can pick them, can't I?" _(my luck)_

Damon cleared his throat slightly and raised an eyebrow at her. She pointed at him. "Oh no. Nonononono. We are not going there," she said. "Katherine blows everything I have out of the water without even trying. Which is _so_ cheating."

"You know about Katherine?" Stefan asked, clearly surprised.

"That's why you were surprised to see me," Elena whispered.

Leesha nodded. "Yeah. Speaking of which..." She turned back to Damon. "Did your crazy plan to use Emily's crystal to open the tomb actually work?"

He looked insulted. "My plans always work!" he said, ignoring the 'crazy' comment.

"Uh-huh," she said. "And that's why Gwen slapped you the last time you came to see me."

"How was I supposed to know that you two were together?" he demanded.

"Her living with me should have been a good clue, just like me asking you not to flirt," Leesha snapped. "And stop avoiding the question."

"Didn't Bonnie destroy the crystal?" Elena asked.

"Someone destroyed the crystal?" Leesha asked incredulously. "Oh yes, that's brilliant planning, Damon."

"Wasn't my fault," he muttered. "Emily...surprised me."

"What happened to 'planning for every possible alternative?'" she asked, clearly quoting something.

"I didn't expect a hundred-year-dead witch to involve herself," Damon said. "It's a bit outside the realm of probability."

"Damon. You're 168 years old and a vampire. By all logica, you should be dust in a grave somewhere," Leesha said, mouth twitching with humor before she became serious again. "You didn't expect something to go wrong?" _(logic)_

Damon scowled at her. "No Leesha. After 145 years as a vampire, I expected everything to be sunshine and roses, and for Katherine to actually be in that fucking tomb so that we could ride off into the sunset when I opened it. Oh wait!"

"Va tutto bene?"she asked before wincing. "Sorry, that was a stupid question." _(Are you alright?)_

"Yes it was," Damon snapped, standing quickly and pacing. Leesha ignored the couple at the end of the table except to switch to Italian, focusing on Damon as she stood in his way.

"Damon, se Katherine libera per 145 anni e non sono stato con voi, lei la donna pistupida del pianeta." She growled as he brushed past her and grabbed his arm. "Guarda me. Guarda me, Damon,"she ordered. In a gentler voice, without losing eye contact, she said, _"_Tu sei troppo buono per lei. Non sprecate il vostro tempo." _(Damon, if Katherine's been free for 145 years and not been with you, she's the stupidest woman on the planet. Look at me. Look at me, Damon. You're too good for her. Don't waste your time.)_


	2. Conversations

Leesha groaned and buried her face in the pillow. "It's too early," she whined. "Go 'way."

There was a laugh as Damon bounced on the end of her bed. "Time to get up."

"I'm going to kill you," she muttered. "Slowly and painfully. It's too fucking early to be awake."

"But Leesha..." She threw the pillow at him before flopping back down. She heard it hit the wall and closed her eyes, already feeling the headache forming as he chuckled.

"I'll be down in a few minutes," she groaned. "Now get out."

Headache medicine first, she decided, then a hot shower, then coffee. And Damon could live without coffee unless he apologized. _Nicely_.

* * *

"Good morning Leesha," Damon said from his position by the stove.

"Cosa c'è di buono?" she muttered, sitting down. "E 'troppo presto per essere sveglio, anche per un vampiro." _(What's good about it? It's too early to be awake, even for a vampire.)_

"English please," he said as he handed her a mug.

"Quando ho voglia di parlare in inglese, parlerò inglese. Fino ad allora, io parlo italiano," she said, glaring at him. _(I'll speak English when I want to speak English. Until then, I'm speaking Italian.)_

"Alright, alright. Speak Italian if you want to," he said, raising his hands in mock-surrender. "I forgot you weren't a morning person."

She snorted. "Certo che no. Le persone non dovrebbero essere cippatrice al mattino. E 'solo sbagliata." She took a sip of the coffee and sighed at the warmth. God, caffeine... _(Of course not. People aren't supposed to be chipper in the morning. It's just wrong.)_

"Was that aimed at me?"

"Tu sei quello che mi ha svegliato." She stood to get another cup of coffee. "Cosa ne pensi?" _(You're the one that woke me up. What do you think?)_

"Hello?" a voice called from the front door. "Stefan?" Damon smirked at Leesha before disappearing.

"Odio quando fa così," she muttered as Elena shrieked. She waved at the girl as she entered with Damon behind her, slightly more human than when Damon had woken her. _(I hate it when he does that.)_

"Sei sveglio ancora?" Damon asked. _(Are you awake yet?)_

She stretched, smiling as the move made her spine feel so much better. "Mi hai svegliato prima delle 07:30 il Sabato. No," she told him. "I'm not." _(You woke me up before 07:30 on Saturday.)_

"Se sei abbastanza sveglio da gioco piacevole?" he asked, moving to massage her shoulders. _(Are you awake enough to play nice?)_

"That I can do," she said, shifting so he could reach a sore spot. Her eyes half-closed in pleasure. Oh god, that felt good. "Stop speaking Italian. It's rude."

"Pensate davvero mi preoccupo?" he whispered in her ear, making her shiver, but she would swear that it was just the fact that her legs were cold. A t-shirt and cotton shorts under a knee-length silk bathrobe were not warm enough for Virginia during the winter. _(Do you really think I care?)_

"Stop that," she hissed and saw him grin out of the corner of her eye.

"Now why would I do that?" he asked, pressing a kiss to her neck before moving away. "I can tell where I'm not wanted. Leesha. Elena."

"Tu non stai ricevendo caffè," she told him as he began to walk away, twitching the black silk folds of her bathrobe closer around her. _(You're not getting coffee.)_

He waved back at her but didn't turn around. Leesha waited until the door closed behind him before she dropped her head to the table with a thump. "Why am I friends with him?" she groaned.

She heard Elena shrug. "I don't know," the girl said, voice disapproving.

Leesha sighed. Why did Damon _always_ have to make people think they were having sex? "Elena, do yourself a favor and stop the jealousy," she said, standing to get another cup of coffee. "It's not pretty, and it makes you look stupid when I have no interest whatsoever in your boyfriend, or whatever Damon is to you."

"You two have never..." Elena trailed off at Leesha's horrified look.

"Oh, god no!" she said, shuddering at the thought. "He can flirt with me all he wants, it would still be like having sex with my brother." She quirked an eyebrow at Elena curiously. "Why? Have you?"

Elena shook her head. "Not for lack of trying on his part," she said.

"Compulsion?"

"Mm-hmm."

Leesha grinned at the look on her face. "You slapped him, didn't you?"

"Yep," Elena said.

Leesha sat back with a satisfied smile. "Good. The idiot needs to be once in a while. Especially when he tries to be with someone who has no interest in him."

"Has Damon ever compelled you?" Elena asked slowly.

"Once," Leesha said. "I was freaking out and he made me calm down a little. Hasn't tried since." She laughed quietly. "Of course, he showed up at my house a few days later and accidentally told me about vervain."

"'Accidentally'?" Elena repeated.

"He was drunk, I was curious," Leesha said, a mischievous grin on her lips as she shrugged.

Elena smiled. "So-" she prompted.

"Is it my fault that I found some vervain growing wild and picked some?" Leesha asked innocently.

Elena laughed. "I'm...surprised," she admitted. "This feels like talking to my friends. It's so..." She trailed off, searching for the word.

"Normal?" Leesha said quietly, an odd smile flickering over her lips. "How long have you known about vampires?"

"Two months," Elena said, and Leesha nodded.

"Ten years," she said quietly.

"How did you find out?" Elena asked. Leesha pulled the black silk of her bathrobe to one side to show Elena the scar, small and shockingly white against her olive skin.

"What happened?" Elena breathed, fingers hovering over the white crescent mark.

God. How to answer that? "Damon saved my life," she said simply, covering the scar again. "And that's all I'm going to say about that right now. If you don't mind."

Elena nodded, searching for a subject. "You were speaking Italian to Damon," she said. "And you kept switching languages last night."

"He's supposed to _tell_ me when I do that," Leesha said, eyes closed and one hand rubbing at her forehead. "Sorry. That happens when I'm tired sometimes. I can't keep track of whether I'm speaking English or Italian, and I'll switch from one to the other unless someone reminds me to keep an eye on it." She grinned. "Of course, sometimes I just use it to piss Damon off. When he deserves it."

"Which is a lot," Elena muttered.

"Oh yeah," Leesha said, taking another sip of her coffee before she set down her mug and leaned forward. "So. What has he been up to?"

Elena took one look at Leesha's face and grinned. Hello, leverage.

* * *

"- my grandmother takes one look at Damon before she turns to me and says, 'Pensavo che ti ho detto di portare a casa un bel ragazzo,' which basically translates into, 'I thought I told you to bring home a good boy,' and everyone in the kitchen, including me, is trying not to laugh, because Damon's just standing there looking at Nonna like he'd been slapped with a wet fish."

Elena gasped in breath as she laughed. "And then?"

"Damon tried to steal some of Nonna's pasta not five minutes later." Leesha bit her lip, trying to restrain her own laughter. "She smacked him with her wooden spoon. The pout he gave her, god, I wish you could've seen it! Nonna is maybe 5'1" and 120 pounds soaking wet. She's absolutely tiny, but you do not mess with her in her own kitchen because she is vicious with that spoon of hers. As Damon found out."

"Telling stories about me?" Damon asked, appearing in the doorway with Stefan behind him.

Leesha put a finger to her lips as Elena giggled. "Of course," she said. "Elena likes the one where my Nonna hit you with her wooden spoon."

"That woman is evil," he said as he sat down.

"Which woman is this?" Stefan asked.

"Damon's scared of my Nonna," she sing-songed, shooting a teasing smile his way.

"She hit me with a spoon," Damon said.

"She hits everybody with that spoon," Leesha said.

"She hit me. With a spoon."

"You got in her way while she was cooking."

"I don't think you're getting this. She hit me with a _spoon_," Damon said.

Leesha looked at him. "And?"

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" he asked, changing the subject.

She shrugged. "I have a few hours before I have to go," she said.

"If you're staying, we're telling how we met," he threatened. Leesha snuck a peek at Elena and suppressed a groan. The girl was visibly curious. There went keeping _that_ secret. Bastard.

"Let me get dressed," she said, resigned.

* * *

Leesha found everyone in the sitting room when she came back down the stairs a few minutes later. She looked at Damon when his feet landed in her lap. "Move your feet Damon," she said.

"But I'm comfortable," he protested, not moving an inch.

She shook her head slightly, full lips twitching with humor. "Ass."

"You love me anyway," he said.

"I must," she said, fingers gently rubbing at his arches. "I would've killed you years ago, otherwise."

"You were going to tell us how you met," Elena interrupted, nearly vibrating with impatience.

"Give us a second," Leesha said, hands not stopping as she settled back against the couch. Where to start...

"I was in Atlanta," Damon said. "Visiting Bree." He smirked, eyes far off.

"Oh, of course you think of that," Leesha muttered. "October 1999, and you think of the girl you had sex with."

"Of course," he agreed.

"Anyway, freshman year of college," she said. "My friends decided to drag me out to a club because I was working too hard."

"The same club I was in," Damon added.

"Of course. I was getting to that bit. So I'm getting another round when this girl comes up to me. Small, blond, green eyes, very pretty. And we start talking because the line's slower than a snail."

"Talking's not all you did," Damon muttered. Leesha blushed, but didn't deny it.

"Wait," Elena said. "Are you-"

"I'm not into labels," Leesha said quietly. "But it doesn't really matter to me which way my partners are wired, if that's what you're asking." She glanced over at Stefan, who was blushing and refusing to meet her eyes. "Uncomfortable, Stefan?" she asked wickedly.

"Stefan's a bit of a stick-in-the-mud," Damon said, cutting off any reply his brother might have made. "Very old-fashioned."

"Hmmm," she said, winking at Elena. "Shame."

"Why is that?" the girl asked with a wink back, making Leesha mentally cheer. Elena willing to play along made the joke on Stefan even better.

"Well, he's cute - a bit old for me, but that normally means more experience. But with this one?" She sighed theatrically and leaned back. "I feel for you, honey." Leesha ignored Stefan's shocked face except to laugh silently. God, it'd been too long since she'd played a joke like that on someone besides Damon or her family.

"Anyway, we eventually ended up in the alley outside the bar." She frowned and rubbed at the scar on her neck.

"Damon saved your life," Elena said, remembering what Leesha had told her.

"Yeah," she whispered, feeling Damon's eyes on her as he shifted to touch one of her hands. "He pulled the bitch off me before I lost too much blood and drove me home."

"Non pensavo che su quella parte," he said quietly with a squeeze of the hand that she was holding like a lifeline. _(I didn't think about that part.)_

"Tu pensi di tutto ciò Damon. E la tua memoria non è così male," she whispered. _(You think of everything Damon. And your memory's not that bad.)_

"Penso solo a tutto quando ho un piano. Questa è la prima volta in oltre un centinaio di anni che non ho," he said. (_I only think of everything when I have a plan. This is the first time in over a hundred years that I haven't.)_

"You and your plans," she muttered. "What did I tell you about speaking Italian in front of other people?"

"That it's rude?" he offered cheekily.

She swatted his foot. "Ass," she told him.

"You know it," he said. Leesha made a noncommittal noise and stood, dropping his feet back on the couch. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"To get another cup of coffee," she told him. "There's still too much blood in my caffeine stream."

"Feeding on you would be like drinking one of your sober-up coffees when I was already sober, wouldn't it?" Damon said, ignoring how the comment made both Stefan and Elena tense.

"Most definitely," Leesha said with a grin at the old joke. "Elena, do you want a cup?"

"I'll come with you," the girl said after having a silent conversation with Stefan.


	3. More Conversations

Disclaimer: I own nothing here except for Leesha. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.

Sorry about the late update, everybody. Leesha decided to go on an unscheduled holiday over the weeks that I actually had time to write, and I didn't like what I did manage to write. But I figured that everyone would rather have an update that I'm not completely satisfied with than wait another month. The first draft of the next chapter is about half of the way done, so it should be done around the end of February at the latest. I have bits and pieces written up to a little bit after where this universe _really_ starts to diverge from canon, so updates should get faster after that.

* * *

Leesha sighed as she noticed the look on Elena's face and turned on the sink. This wasn't going to be something that either of the Salvatore brothers needed to hear. "Go ahead," she said. "They won't be able to hear unless you shout."

"How are you so calm about this?" Elena asked incredulously. "Damon just threatened to kill you."

Leesha laughed as she stirred sugar into her coffee. "That was a joke, Elena. He pokes fun at the amount of coffee I drink, I poke fun at his, well, everything. We might get on each other's nerves on purpose, but it's all just in good fun, and we're both well aware of that." She glanced at the younger girl. "You really haven't known him very long, have you?"

"Nope," she sighed, leaning on the counter next to Leesha. "And whenever I think I do, something new comes up. Compulsion, or that he has friends that he's never mentioned and that Stefan doesn't know about, or that he needs someone to save his life on occasion."

"He really does, especially with some of the plans he makes," Leesha agreed. She smiled into her coffee at a memory.

"Have you ever seen him like this?" Elena asked quietly.

"I've seen him drunk before, but never as bad as last night. Finding Katherine in that tomb was one of the few things he could count on for the last hundred years. And when she wasn't, when he found out she'd been free for the whole time..." Leesha trailed off, grip tightening on her coffee cup. "If I ever get my hands on that bitch, she's dead."

"Leesha, why _are_ you friends with him?" Elena's voice was curious but almost reluctant, like she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"Because when he's not doing something stupid, he's the best kind of friend. He's smart, and funny, and it's almost ridiculous how loyal he can be to the people he cares about." Her dark eyes studied the girl for a second. "But you already knew that, didn't you? Because you managed to get through that wall he uses to keep people away," Leesha said, voice quiet but full of certainty. She smiled when Elena nodded.

"He always seems so alone," Elena whispered. "And the look on his face after he realized..." She trailed off, hands rubbing up and down her arms as she shivered at the memory.

"As long as we're around he's not," Leesha said firmly. "He might think he doesn't have any friends - god knows, he tries hard enough to push people away that it would try the patience of a saint - but we know better, don't we?"

Elena nodded and Leesha settled back against the counter, satisfied with the determination she could see in the girl's eyes. She'd keep an eye on Damon, make sure he didn't do anything too crazy. "Now then," she said, steering the conversation towards safer waters. "You said something about a trip to Georgia?"

* * *

_2004_

_Leesha stretched slightly and yawned before nestling back into the warm patch in the- wait. There was something very wrong with this picture. Why was she in a car instead of in her bed?_

_"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," a familiar voice said beside her._

_Leesha groaned, reluctantly opening her eyes to look at him. It seemed that Damon Salvatore had deigned to appear in her life again. "Damon, what the hell is going on?" He smirked at her, but didn't answer. Leesha closed her eyes again and let her head thud back against the headrest. "Damon," she groaned again._

_"What?" he asked innocently._

_"Where are we and why am I in your car?" Leesha asked._

_"We're in Virginia," he said._

_She blinked. "Virginia. Why are we in Virginia?"_

_"Because it's on the way to New York."_

_"We're going to New York?" Leesha could hear the excitement bubbling up in her voice. She hadn't been home in nearly four years. Damon glanced sideways at her and nodded, and she smiled, nestling back into the seat. She was going home._

_Her smile dropped off her face as she realized something. She was going to have to introduce Damon to her family. "Shit," Leesha muttered, ignoring the smirk the vampire sent her at the curse. This would not end well._

_Two days later she was laughing her ass off at Damon's face after her Nonna hit him with her spoon. She had never been quite so happy to be wrong._

* * *

Leesha managed to make Elena sit next to Damon when they went back to the living room and had to conceal a smile when she saw the looks that Damon kept shooting at the girl. She had had a suspicion that he had feelings for Elena after that stunt he had pulled earlier, but had wanted to see if Elena felt the same way before she killed him for using her. Damon knew how she felt about that. Leesha glanced at Stefan. It was clear that he didn't notice the looks Elena gave Damon out of the corner of her eye, or how Damon was almost absentmindedly playing with the ends of Elena's hair. Almost.

She looked at Damon, raising an eyebrow. He half-shrugged, but moved his hands to rest behind his head as he shifted on the couch. Leesha smiled at that. Very smooth, Salvatore.

"What is with you and road trips?" she asked curiously, remembering what Elena had said about her own kidnapping/trip/bonding experience.

Damon blinked before his eyes slid over to Elena. "You told her about Georgia, didn't you? What happened to 'whatever happens in Georgia, stays in Georgia'?" he asked.

"That's Vegas, dear," Leesha said without looking up from her nails, feigning boredom.

He waved a hand at her. "Shh, talking."

"I can't believe you just shhed me," Leesha muttered after a second. "Very mature, Damon."

He shot her a look, falling into the familiar pattern just as easily as she did. "Shut up."

She smirked at him, subtly getting ready to move for when he lunged at her like she knew he would. Damon Salvatore's pride was a touchy thing, but she knew exactly how to push his buttons without pushing too far. "When have you ever known me to shut up when you told me to?"

He growled quietly at her. "Shut. Up."

Leesha just grinned. Winding Damon up was always fun. "Nope." She slipped off the sofa and into a crouch as he lunged at her at human speed. "Missed me, missed me," she taunted.

She could see the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he growled playfully at her again. "I said to be quiet, little girl." Leesha just laughed before stepping quickly to the side as he passed, still at human speed.

"Should we be worried?" Elena asked Stefan quietly. Leesha laughed outright at the question, but decided to let Stefan answer as she spun away from a grinning Damon again.

"No, I don't think so," he responded.

* * *

"Come on, I'll walk you to your car," Damon said.

She smiled as he opened the door for her in one of his rare gentlemanly moments. "Thank you."

"Anything new with you?" he asked as they walked along the driveway, feet crunching in the gravel.

"Not really," Leesha said. "Work's a little hectic- like always- but my schedule keeps being rearranged by the supervisor from hell, which makes it even worse."

"You love your job," Damon accused, smiling at her fondly.

Leesha laughed. "Yeah, I kinda do." They stopped next to her car. "Da quanto tempo sei stato innamorato di Elena?" she asked quietly, not wanting Stefan to hear what she was saying if he was listening in. (_How long have you been in love with Elena?_)

He looked at her before laughing. "Hai intenzione di dire nulla di lei?" (_Are you going to say anything to her?_)

She shrugged. "E la tua vita." She was quiet for a moment, studying him, before she smiled. "Non diruna parola. Te lo prometto." (_It's your life. I won't say a word. I promise._)

"Grazie, Leesha," he said before switching back to English. "How _do_ you do that?" (_Thank you_.)

"Practice," Leesha said. "I went to school for psychology, remember?"

"Yeah, until you became a _nurse_," he teased.

"Are you complaining? Remember who patched you up when you got into that fight with John," she said.

"He started it."

"Because you flirted with me!"

"Because you looked lovely," he said, dismissing her outrage with a wave of his hand. "I was just trying to show him that someone else would pay attention to you if he wasn't going to."

"Well, that failed," she said. "Instead you got beaten within an inch of your life."

"Unlife," he corrected.

Leesha waved her own hand at him and opened her door. "Semantics." She threw her bag in the passenger seat before she turned back. "If you need me, call. I can get here in a few hours. Elena has my number if you've forgotten it."

"I would never do that," he said, ignoring the disbelieving face she turned his way. "Hey Leesha," he started. "Why are you going to New York?"

Leesha made a face. "Eliza's getting married to one of her boy-toys. The kid's barely out of high school," she said. "It's going to end badly, and I'm gonna be the one picking up the pieces, I just know it."

"Have fun," he said.

She laughed. "Yeah." She hugged him, her three-inch boot heels allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder for a second. "Take care of yourself," she whispered.

He hugged her back gently, one hand running down her braid to rest at her waist. "You too."

Leesha pulled away when her phone rang. "That would be Eliza," she said, flipping it open. "Hello?" She winced and pulled it away from her ear. "Calmati," she hissed into it. "Eliza, calmati. Sono quasi fuori dalla DC, ma il traffico stato omicidio. Fai un respiro profondo, chiedete Nonna per una tazza di te rilassarsi un po', va bene? Sarla poche ore." She smiled at the less frantic reply. "I love you too. Bye." (_Calm down. Eliza, calm down. I'm nearly out of DC, but traffic was murder. Take a deep breath, ask Nonna for a cup of tea, and relax a bit, okay? I'll be there in a few hours._)

Damon opened her door for her. "Good luck," he said.

"Weddings are insane," she groaned, rubbing at her temple with one hand to ward off the headache she could feel coming despite the aspirin she'd taken earlier.

"Part of the reason I avoided the whole institution of marriage," Damon said.

"Nah, that's because you enjoy the chase too much to give it up for just one woman," Leesha told him. "Don't even try to bullshit your way out of it, you know it's true."

"Don't you have a wedding to get to?" he asked to avoid answering.

"I'm going, I'm going," she laughed as she slid into the driver's seat. He'd never really been comfortable with the emotional crap. "This is going to be absolutely insane."

"Think of it this way," Damon said with a smirk. "You have an excuse to have sex with the best man."

"You are such an ass," Leesha told him as she started her car.

"And you're a bit of a bitch at the right time of the month," he shot back.

"Better a bitch than a beast of burden," she said.

"Touche." He took her hand and kissed the back of it. Leesha rolled her eyes. The gesture was wasted on her, he knew that. "See you soon, Damon."

He stood back and watched as her car rolled out of the driveway. "She was nice," Stefan remarked beside him.

Damon chuckled before clapping Stefan of the shoulder and saying, "You have no idea."


	4. Time In Between

Disclaimer: I own nothing here except for Leesha and her family. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.

Hey everyone! So I managed to finish this one in two weeks instead of the nearly three months the last one took, and part of that is the fact that this one's shorter because I don't like writing filler. Not entirely happy with it like I was the first couple chapters, but I liked where this ended. But I am expecting reviews after I post this asking what Leesha is and how she knows what's going on.

The next update should be out by the middle of March. And after that one, with luck, it'll be time for Founder's Day and some _really_ long chapters because of a few things I'm doing.

NOTE: _'Gianni'_ is pronounced like _'Johnny'_. My sister (and occasional beta-reader along with PurpleStrawberrryDreams- I love you both.) had to point out to me that not everyone knows how to pronounce my character names.

* * *

Even when she got upset at Damon, there was one thing Leesha could say for him: life was never boring with him around.

Not that it was exactly boring now, Leesha conceded as she handed Doctor Potter the neccesary files before moving down the hallway to grab a quick coffee from the breakroom, but it was a more hectic craziness instead of the enjoyable (and occasionally dangerous) insanity Damon carried with him. Today was her third double-shift this week, and it was only Wednesday.

"How're you holding up?" one of the other nurses, Amy Hudson, asked her.

"Exhausted," Leesha said. "You'd think that we'd be used to this by now."

"Damn budget cuts," the other woman muttered as she grabbed new gloves.

Leesha hmmed agreeably and knocked back the styrofoam cup of caffienated sludge, shuddering at both the horrendous taste and the jolt of caffeine the stuff gave her. She was going to need it, she decided as she glanced at the clock. She still had four hours to go until this shift was over, and the nauseous sinking feeling she would get in the pit of her stomach sometimes when something wasn't right just wouldn't go away.

What the hell was wrong?

* * *

"I worry about you, Leesh," Gianni said the next day during their weekly hour-long phone call.

"Why?" she asked. "I'm older, I should be worried about you."

"Doesn't work like that, sis," he said, ignoring her deflection. "You seem distracted, like you're half-focused on talking to me and the other half's somewhere else."

"Sorry Gianni, it's just work, and craziness..." '_And the fact that I'm __pretty sure my best friend is doing something stupid, and trying to get someone to shove a pointy piece of wood through his heart.'_ She sighed and fell backwards onto her bed. "I'm getting too old for this," she mumbled.

"For what?" her brother asked acidly. "For telling me the truth? Because I can't think of one conversation that we've had since our freshman year of college without you lying to me."

"Gianni..." Leesha trailed off. She didn't know how to answer that.

"What happened to you that night, Leesh?" Gianni demanded. "Tell me that much at least."

"I _can't_," she told him. "I can't tell you because I don't want to know some days, and I can't do that to you. It's a big sister thing. I'm supposed to protect you," she added at the memory of what Elena had told her about her younger brother Jeremy.

"Fine," he snapped, and Leesha winced at the ice in his voice. He'd never talked to her like that before, only to people who hurt her or his friends - just like she talked to people who dared to look at him the wrong way. "Call me when you can. Because ten years is an awful long time to keep something this big - whatever 'this' is - a secret from your own family."

"Gianni-" she started, but he'd already hung up. She sighed and lowered the phone. "Happy birthday, little brother."

'_My twin brother is pissed off at me - for good reason, too - I keep feeling like something's wrong and I don't know what it is, and I'm working a double shift again in-'_ Leesha checked her watch and sighed. _'Twenty minutes. Joy. Marie's gonna kill me for being late.'_ She grabbed her coat and bag before leaving her apartment. "Happy fucking birthday to us," she muttered.

* * *

One week and three phone calls from Elena later, Leesha was officially planning her move to Mystic Falls. She'd gotten a job at Mystic Falls Hospital, given her week's notice to Marie, finished packing her nonessentials, arranged for her furniture to be shipped along with most of her other stuff, and was now onto finding a house.

"Lisa, you are a godsend for sending me these pictures," she said into the phone as she clicked on the email. "This is the one that was built in the nineties, right? 2200 square feet?"

"Yes, on both counts," Lisa Smalley confirmed. "The other one was built two years ago, but it's about the same size."

"And more expensive," Leesha said. "Besides, I think I like the nineties one better anyway."

"I'll fax you the paperwork," Lisa said. "Make sure to get it to me as soon as you can." They exchanged pleasantries before hanging up.

"2107 Maple Street, here I come," Leesha whispered, smiling.

* * *

A few days later, the sinking feeling was back and worse than ever.

She hung up and slowly lowered the phone to her lap, not paying any attention to the piles of boxes around her. Gianni was still unhappy with her (understatement of the _century_) after their lost conversation, but fine. Nonna was fine. So were Mama, Da, and Eliza. So where was the feeling in her gut coming from? She bit her lip and dialed the familiar number on a hunch, hoping that she was wrong.

"Leesha, now's not a good time," Damon said.

"I woke up this morning feeling like something was wrong. My family's fine. What's happening, right now?" she asked.

"Leesha, now is not a good time," he repeated, growling.

"Too fucking bad," she snapped, short temper from lack of sleep frayed by both worry and frustration. "Tell me what the hell is going down, goddamnit."

"Stefan's missing," he bit out. "I'm in the middle of a meeting with the teacher so that we can go get him."

"There won't be enough," she muttered absently, not knowing why she said it.

"What?" Damon asked.

"I don't know why I said that," Leesha whispered, perturbed. "Go get him."

He hung up before she could, and she quickly dialed another number. "Damn automated switchboards," she muttered as she waited before straightening up when someone answered. "Hi, I'm Alicia Macdonald. We spoke on the phone a few days ago about me moving to Mystic Falls..."

* * *

Her dreams that night were foggy and indistinct, but she could have sworn that she had heard Elena calling Stefan's name.


	5. Countdown Starts

How long has it been since I updated, six months?

Um...oops?

I am so sorry that this is so late. I honestly expected to be done with this months ago, and the original finished chapter was. But I wasn't happy with it at all, so I rewrote it from scratch, so yeah. Really late chapter. On the plus side, the next chapter, which is my version of _Founder's day_ and_ The Return_ with Leesha involved, a;ready has the main parts written, so I just need to write the connecting bits, edit, and do the final read-over. I want to get it up before the next season starts (16 days! Excited!), but with how my last posting idea went, I'm not making promises.

Also, I seem to have forgotten to disclaim the title in the first chapter; it comes from the song 'Dare You to Move' by Switchfoot.

_...I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor_  
_I dare you to move_  
_I dare you to move_  
_Like today never happened_  
_Today never happened before_  
**_Welcome to the fallout_**  
_Welcome to resistance_  
_The tension is here_  
_Tension is here_  
_Between who you are and who you could be_  
_Between how it is and how it should be..._

Chapter title comes from Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)." Of course, I only know the Shiny Toy Guns cover from the Lincoln commercial...

* * *

Three weeks in Mystic Falls was busier than a year working at Saint Joseph's, but Leesha already loved it.

She loved the house that she'd bought and how quiet it was on her street. She loved how Jenna across the street was always popping in for coffee and advice on her thesis whenever she had the time. She loved how the town was small enough that the hospital was only a few minutes drive away and everyone knew each other, but was still large enough that everybody didn't know everything about everybody else's business (unless you were part of the founding families or had somehow gotten on Mrs. Lockwood's bad side. That changed everything).

The only problem she had with the town was also the biggest reason that she'd been busy: vampire problems.

First there had been Stefan's attempt to get himself off human blood. It had failed miserably, and Leesha had a suspicion that Damon hadn't helped matters at all. Then there had been the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, where Stefan had fed on one of the girls running for the title (Amber, who Leesha had made sure to keep an eye on while she had been in the hospital), which segued directly into what Leesha was privately referring to as Human Blood Lockup Rehab.

She still thought it was creepy that the Salvatores had a dungeon in their cellar, although she couldn't deny that it had been useful.

And she had met Jeremy's Anna at the pageant. Leesha smiled to herself. She liked the odd couple. Jeremy reminded her, strangely enough, of what she thought Damon might have been like before Katherine had turned him, and Anna was refreshingly straightforward whenever they talked. Plus Leesha was a bit of a geek when it came to cultures and legends, and Anna, who had travelled all over the world in her 700-odd years, was normally willing to answer her questions as long as Leesha understood some areas were offlimits.

Of course she understood. She was friends with Damon Salvatore, king of touchy subjects - like the one between him and Alaric regarding Isobel.

On top of that, she was working at the hospital almost every day to store up days off in case something happened and she was acting as relationship counselor for Jenna, Jeremy and Anna, and Elena. Leesha chuckled disbelievingly into her coffee at the reminder that she was giving advice on three separate relationships, two of which involved vampires at least six times her age. Leesha wasn't good with her own relationships, so why were they coming to her for advice on theirs? It made no sense.

She glanced up at the sound of footsteps upstairs and waited for Anna to appear from the hallway. "Good morning," Leesha said, already moving towards the coffee pot. They both knew the routine for the mornings that Anna would show up with questions and without warning by now.

Anna smiled at her before taking a seat on one of the stools at the island. "Can I ask you something?" she asked once her hands were wrapped around the warm mug.

Leesha smiled faintly as she turned towards Anna. "Of course."

They talked for half an hour or so before Jeremy knocked on the door and let himself in like she had told him he could. "Hey Leesha," he called.

"We're in here, Jeremy," Leesha called back. Once she was sure that he was there looking for Anna, she quietly slipped out and went to get ready for work.

* * *

_A hand holding a vial of something thick and red..._

_A building on fire, the one just down one of the roads by Town Square that had been Jeremy and Elena's father's practice before he died, the same one Anna's mother is interested in buying..._

_Two Elenas, one with straight hair and the other curly, face-to-face. But the one with curly hair has a malicious expression on her face that Elena would never wear..._

_A stone, white and cloudy - maybe a moonstone..._

_A mask..._

_A full moon. There is something moving in the woods..._

Leesha opened her eyes before sitting up with a groan. She was starting to get really sick of this repeating dream...

Still half-asleep, she stood and pulled on her robe before going downstairs to sit on her porch and stare up at the sky with unfocused eyes. She whispered, "Are You trying to tell me something, or am I just going crazy?"

She didn't really expect an answer, but she still smiled faintly at her silliness and nestled back into the seat, comforted enough by the idea of someone watching over them to fall back into something resembling sleep.

* * *

She hated Isobel, Leesha decided as she turned off her engine and opened her door.

She knew that she'd been called a bitch before, and she'd accepted the label, even taken it as a compliment a few times. But Isobel was just...Leesha floundered for a word. How was it that she was a native speaker of two entirely different languages, and yet she still couldn't come up with a term strong enough for Elena's vampire birth mother?

Anyway.

Nobody, except maybe Elena's uncle, deserved to be treated the way that Isobel had treated Ric when she'd rolled into town last night. Thankfully, from what she could tell from a quick phone conversation with Jeremy, the worst injuries that anyone had gained from the incident was a light beating (John, and it was his own fault anyway) and Jeremy's growing distrust of his weaselly uncle.

Leesha frowned at the light coming through the living room window. Had she left the lights on in the kitchen again?

"You knew," Elena accused as soon as the door was open.

Leesha rolled her eyes and shrugged out of her coat. She'd been on the night shift all week in order to have Founder's Day tomorrow off. She was exhausted, she had the sneaking suspicion that she smelled like the hospital, and all she wanted to do right now was to eat something and shower before she crashed for the day, not have the yes-I-knew-that-Damon-was-in-love-with-you-no-I-didn't-tell-you conversation with Elena that Leesha had known would be coming whenever Elena figured it out. "Hello to you too, Elena." She slipped off her shoes and went to reheat some leftover Chinese before she went to bed.

"You knew that Damon's in love with me," Elena said.

"Yes," Leesha said simply.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Elena demanded.

"How'd you find out?" Leesha returned, inwardly wincing at how much she sounded like Damon when he didn't want to talk about something.

Elena blinked. "Um, Isobel. But that isn't the point!"

Isobel. Of course. Okay, another thing to add to the shit list under her name. "Because it wasn't my business," Leesha said. "It's Damon's life, and it should have been his decision about when to tell you. Obviously Isobel took that choice out of his hands, but I, personally, didn't see a reason that I should interfere."

"I thought we were friends," Elena said.

"And we are, honey," Leesha assured her. "But I don't share other people's secrets. It never ends well for anyone involved." She took a bite of beef with broccoli before adding, "You want to know something? I've known the man for ten years, and I've never seen him look at anyone the way he does at you when he thinks no one's looking. Not once."

Elena didn't say anything to that. She just stared at her hands thoughtfully as Leesha finished her meal.


	6. Founder's Day

I decided to split this one up, since this is the first half and it's still over 3,000 words. The other half (with luck) should be up before the end of the year, but not before December.

* * *

_Anna's sitting like she likes to with her knees held loosely to her chest, smiling up at a boy that looks like Jeremy before standing with her usual grace to kiss him. She hops up to sit on the top of the blocky stone pillar that had appeared nearby while Leesha wasn't paying attention. White wings sprout from her thin shoulders and curl around Anna to hide her from view before the fog that swirls around Leesha's ankles swallows the vampire._

_Jeremy's voice. "Anna said that vampires don't have to feel pain; that they could turn it off if they shut out their humanity."_

_Damon, almost echoey, like she's hearing his end of the conversation from the end of a long tunnel. "It's very true."_

_"Is it easier that way?"_

_"Is what easier?"_

_"Life..." Jeremy's voice fades away into the fog._

_He's barely visible through the thick swirling mist, but Leesha can see him sitting with his back against Anna's pillar with a vial of some liquid in his hand. Blood, Leesha realizes with a chill._

_Anna's voice whispering through the fog. "Help him."_

_Leesha can't turn around, but there's a crackling behind her and a dancing light that casts ruddy shadows on the fog. There's something awfully familiar about the way the reflections move, like..._

_"Help him, please," Anna whispers again._

Leesha woke with the sounds of a fire echoing in her ears.

* * *

Something bad was going to happen today, and knowing that without knowing what or how made her snappish and irritable. Damon noticed within a few seconds.

"Come on, purge, get it all out. What's wrong?" Damon said.

His tone made Leesha grin just a little before she sobered and said, "Weird dreams. I have a bad feeling about today, like the shit's going to hit the fan, and I hate knowing that without knowing what exactly is going to happen so that I can stop it before it does."

Damon put a hand on her shoulder and made her turn to look him in the eyes. His thumb smoothed out the lines that her frustrated frown created. "You'll get wrinkles," he told her.

Leesha looked at his mostly earnest expression and laughed. "Thanks. I needed that," she said after her chuckles had ended.

"You have no idea what's going to happen?" Damon asked.

She shook her head, frowning again. "Not a damn thing, except that Anna's gonna be caught up in it and Jeremy's hurting afterwards. Be careful today, please?"

He nodded and stepped away to pay attention to the parade. Leesha smiled and clapped with everyone else, but she still shook her head worriedly when she noticed which float was coming up. Elena. "Why do you do this to yourself?" she whispered too quietly for her friend to hear.

Leesha wanted Damon to be happy, God knows he deserved it, but she didn't think that Elena was ready yet. Not when the girl had had trouble acknowledging that Damon loved her after Isobel spilled.

But it was Damon. Which meant Leesha would help him any way that she could if it meant him being happy.

* * *

It had really been almost a good day, Leesha decided as she wandered the square with Damon. It had been way too long since the last time she'd gone to a parade, and if Damon was in one of his rare good moods, so was she.

Then everything started going to hell.

"They're already here, Damon," Anna said.

"Then we don't have time to hunt them down or get all the Founding Families out of here," Leesha said. "Ideas?"

"Rip out John Gilbert's throat?" Damon suggested.

"Make sure to warn Stefan and Elena about what's going on first," she told him before squeezing his arm and turning back to Anna as he disappeared into the crowd. "I'm going to warn the Sheriff. We might need her help. Are you going for Jeremy?" Anna nodded. "Be careful." Anna nodded again and slipped off towards the Grill.

Leesha hurried toward the police station. Someone knocked into her as she walked, making her stumble. She aimed a glare over her shoulder at the man before stopping to put a hand to her temple, suddenly and unexplainably dizzy to the point that she fell when she tried to take another step.

"C'mere sweetheart," a man muttered as he hauled her up, slinging her arm around his neck and wrapping his own around her waist. Leesha went with him helplessly, unable to control her own body as he turned them around and headed towards where she'd left Anna.

"What did you do to me?" she breathed out as he settled her in a chair. She could barely twitch her fingers if she focused.

He smiled faintly and unfastened her bracelet before answering. "Nothing that you should worry your pretty little head about, it'll wear off soon enough. I just needed you off balance so that you would stay still for a minute." He almost looked sorry about it too, Leesha thought before she realized that he had taken away her vervain.

"No," she whispered, trying to reach for her bracelet. She could make her hand move in the direction she wanted now, just a little. "Why?"

He smiled again and gently stroked a piece of hair out of her face with cold fingers. "You can't get involved in what's happening tonight. And I can't have you remembering me."

Leesha shook her head. "I won't tell, I promise I won't," she said weakly, still trying to get her bracelet. That was all the vervain she had on her, he couldn't, please, she couldn't be compelled again. "Please, don't-"

"Shhh, precious, I know," he soothed. "I'm not worried about you telling someone. You keep secrets far too well for that."

"Who are you?" she whispered.

The man sighed. "We're kin," he said, and a hint of a Scottish burr slipped into his voice. "So I can't really be letting you get yourself in more danger than absolutely necessary, aye?"

"I've met you before, haven't I?" Leesha asked. Her heart had slowed a little at the revelation that they were related. She knew from experience that family could still hurt you, but he wouldn't compel her, right?

But then why couldn't she remember him?

He smiled at her and nodded before gently catching her chin and making her look him in the eye. Leesha started to struggle when she realized that he _was_ going to compel her, but he kept her still with just his light grip on her chin. "Aye, that you have, but I still can't let you remember me." He swallowed and offered her a ragged, "I'm sorry."

"_Please_, don't-" Her protest cut off as her pupils dilated. The hand that had managed to clutch at his wrist went slack.

He kept his voice low. "You won't remember the conversation that we just had or me compelling you. You're only going to remember what I am about to tell you and believe that it is what happened. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Leesha said robotically. Even under the forced calm of compulsion she was nearly hyperventilating.

"The Sheriff wasn't at the station. You got dizzy and fell, and I helped you here. I'm a nice stranger, nothing more. You're tired from a long day, so you are going to go home when I suggest it, but you're going to have one of those marvelous feelings of yours before you go to bed that will make you check in with Jeremy. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she said again.

"So what happened?" he asked.

"I went to the station, but I couldn't find Liz. I got really dizzy when I was walking across the square and fell. It's probably because it's been a really long day."

A bitter smile twitched one corner of his mouth up. "Exactly, precious. Now then. Forget what I said you couldn't remember." He slipped the bracelet back on her wrist before breaking eye contact. "Are you sure that you're alright?" he asked, acting as if it was the second or third time that he'd asked.

Leesha blinked and nodded. "I'm fine," she said. "A little dizzy, but nothing too bad." She struggled to her feet, wondering what had made her dizzy enough to fall over and need help to walk. The stranger stood with her with his hands outstretched towards her in case she fell again. She waved him off. "I'm fine, I'm fine, just give me a second." She felt weird, kind of sick and panicky, like something bad had just happened. But nothing had.

"Why don't you go home?" he suggested.

"Think I will," she said. That sounded like a very good idea actually. It'd been a long day. "Thank you for helping me."

He smiled at her and shrugged. "Not a problem sweetheart. Be careful getting home."

Leesha smiled. "I will. Have a good night." She turned and walked away.

"You too!" he called after her. He let the mask that made him appear to be a normal human fall as he watched her go. "Sixteen times," he muttered to himself, disgruntled. "_Sixteen times_ in the last five years alone I've had to intervene to keep her out of trouble. Why couldn't she have been more like her father and just stayed out of it? A nice, _safe_, happy life with nothing that goes bump in the night in it, is that too much to ask?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The sad thing was that trying to keep Leesha safe without letting her know about him was one of the easier things that he'd had to do in the seventy or so years since he'd been turned. Her grandfather, his cousin, had been a lot more set on getting himself killed on a near-weekly basis after living through Dunkirk.

Still... "This was so much easier before she met Salvatore," he decided before disappearing into the crowd. If he was going to be stuck in this backwater town for the foreseeable future, he wanted a good spot to watch the fireworks.

The Mayor finished his speech. The fireworks started. And then he was on the ground with a piercing shriek ringing through his head, clutching at his ears. It hurt, it _hurt_, it was too loud, please God make it stop... A needle was in his neck, injecting him with something that burned along his veins like fire. He was familiar enough with the feeling to recognize it.

Vervain.

* * *

Damon's phone went off before he'd gotten two blocks away from the flaming building. He glanced at the caller ID. Leesha. "Where are you?" he demanded.

"At home." Her voice was raspy. It sounded like she'd been throwing up. "Damon, I'm so sorry. I never saw him coming."

"What happened?"

"I got compelled," she whispered, like it was some dark secret to be ashamed of. And, Damon realized, maybe it was to someone who prided herself on staying in control the way Leesha did.

"So why are you at home?" he asked as gently as he could, trying to keep Leesha from fully breaking down. He took the turn that led to her house.

"I don't know! One minute I'm walking towards the police station, and next thing I know, I have memories of not finding Liz there and falling while I was walking back across the square. But they aren't mine, they're nowhere near detailed enough to be mine, and someone _put them in my head_, and I don't know what happened, and I'm freaking out, Damon, I'm literally going out of my mind trying to figure it out, and _God_..." The phone clattered out of her hand. Damon could hear her coughing and gagging in the background.

There was a long moment before the toilet flushed. When she spoke again, her voice was just loud enough for the phone to pick up and so calm that if Damon hadn't just heard her throwing up, he might have thought the tremble in her voice was just his imagination. "I don't know what he wanted. I don't know what I did or what I told him. I don't even remember what he looks like." Leesha sniffled as he opened her door and headed towards the kitchen. He was walking up the steps when, "I feel like such an idiot."

Damon hung up and leaned against the doorjamb. "So you didn't notice something." He shrugged. "You're human, Leesha. You make mistakes, accept it and move on."

Leesha turned her head slightly to give him a faint smile. Her eyes caught on the bottle in his hand. "Is that?" He raised it so that she could see the label and she smiled wider. "Thank God. You know me so well."

She took the Jack Daniels from Damon when he sat next to her and took a long drink before passing the bottle back to him. They drank together in silence for a while before Damon said, "I should go talk to Jeremy."

Leesha took a drink. "What happened?"

"Anna's dead."

She hissed a breath in through her teeth. "God. Poor Jeremy." Another long swallow. "He won't take it well. He's lost too many people over the last year." Leesha passed him the bottle. She'd had enough to calm down, now she had to focus on helping Jeremy.

Damon glanced over at her. "Damage control?"

She shrugged and leaned forward slightly to wrap her arms around her knees. "You've known me _way_ too long for me to even dignify that with a response."

"You never told me that you're scared of being compelled," he said after a second. Leesha, who prided herself on controlling her own reactions to anything that happened, who was always ready with a quip or advice, so scared of compulsion that she threw up in her bathroom after realizing what had happened? He could barely fathom it.

Leesha looked away. "Not scared, Damon," she said softly. "Terrified."

If her breaking down over the phone with him hadn't been enough for him to put the pieces together, the simplicity of her words would have told him that he was seeing the most vulnerable part of Leesha, something he'd only seen once or twice in the decade that he had known her. This wasn't the bold face she showed to everyone, or even the softer but still strong one she reserved for the people she cared about. This was the weakness that she didn't show _anyone_ unless she absolutely had to, the part that could never be convinced for even a second that everything was alright.

Human eyes never would have noticed how she was shaking, but he could easily see the tremors running down her arms and legs. Damon wrapped an arm around her shoulders, ignoring how she flinched when his skin touched hers. He waited until she relaxed before drawing her into his side and holding her there until he couldn't feel her tremble every time she took a breath.

* * *

Leesha couldn't go through the window the way Damon could, so she went through the front door. She smiled at Jenna when her friend was the one who opened the door and chatted pleasantly with her for a minute before slipping upstairs. "Is what easier?" Damon asked.

Leesha faltered when she heard Jeremy's response. "Life." She had dreamed about this conversation.

This couldn't be happening. She wasn't a witch, she couldn't be dreaming of the future. Things like that just didn't happen. She swallowed hard and shoved the connection that she'd just made away. She could deal with it later.

"…at least if you're a vampire, you don't have to feel bad about it if you don't want to," Damon was saying.

"Is that what you did?" Jeremy asked curiously. Leesha leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. She already knew Damon's answer. _Yes._

Surprisingly, he hesitated before speaking. "I did it for a… I did it for a very long time. And life was a lot easier." But not better, Leesha added to herself, not better than the human life that he had lost when he had become a vampire. She'd known Damon long enough to know that he was doing the same inside his own head.

She brushed by Damon to lean against the open bathroom door. _Are you okay?_ he asked silently with one hand on the doorframe.

Leesha nodded. _I'm fine,_ her eyes said. She turned her attention to Jeremy as Damon walked away.

"What are you doing here?" Jeremy asked.

"Anna," she said simply before swallowing. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you here?" he repeated. Kid's eyes were sharp.

"I wanted to apologize."

"For what? Anna dying wasn't your fault." Jeremy went over to his desk and opened a drawer. He reached in to touch something. "It wasn't anyone's fault," he said quietly as the door downstairs opened. Jenna was talking to someone.

Leesha hesitated for a second. If she told Jeremy, there would always be somebody who knew. She wouldn't be able to brush it off later. But then she slowly started talking. "I saw bits and pieces of what happened today last night," she admitted. "Not enough to put the pieces together before it was already too late, but enough to worry."

"What did you see?" Jeremy whispered.

White wings curling around Anna. The reflection of a fire on fog. Jeremy with a vial in his hand. "I saw you holding Anna's blood," she said. Leesha managed to keep any inflection out of her words, not showing Jeremy exactly how she felt about that.

Jeremy looked defiant. "Are you going to tell me that I shouldn't turn?"

"No," Leesha responded immediately, "I'm not. I think it's a bad idea, but I'm not going to tell you how to run your life."

"Most people would."

And wasn't that the truth. Leesha snorted. "Jer, I'm not most people. It's your life and you can do whatever the hell you want with it," she said. She took a step forward and touched his arm. "But can you do something for me? Don't do anything without thinking first, please. That kind of change is permanent." Jeremy looked at her and nodded without saying a word. It wasn't a promise, but it also wasn't a rebuttal either.

The door downstairs opened again. "Jeremy? You up?" Elena's voice called.

Ten seconds later there was a scream.


End file.
